Coffee linked to lower diabetes risk

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A study shows that an ingredient in coffee may protect from diabetes.
Previous work has shown that drinking coffee is linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. But it has not been clear if it is the caffeine in the coffee that provides the benefit or some other component. Now a team at the University of Minnesota report on a study of both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption in a group of nearly 29,000 postmenopausal women.

Over the following 11 years, 1,418 of the women developed type 2 diabetes. Women drinking six cups of any kind of coffee per day were 22 per cent less likely to develop diabetes than those who drank no coffee at all. And those who drank six or more cups of decaffeinated coffee were 33 per cent less likely to develop diabetes than the non coffee drinkers. Overall, caffeine did not appear related to diabetes risk. So some other ingredient must be responsible. The researchers suggest it might be magnesium, but the results of the study don’t really support this. Maybe it is the polyphenols – which are powerful antioxidants – which provide the benefit. Whatever the active ingredient in coffee is that can prevent diabetes, it is clearly worth further study.

Source
Archives of Internal Medicine 26th June 2006 Volume 166 pages 1311-1315

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